He’s sitting on the desk chair that he’s rolled over to Baekhyun’s side of the room, with his knees tucked up against his chest, watching while Baekhyun examines one of his patients. He’s tired, but after spending all morning with Suho, the dorm room feels a little too empty to be comfortable.

“So you still haven’t told me exactly why Suho showed up at our room at like five this morning,” Baekhyun’s saying as he holds down his patient’s arm with his elbow and then sticks a needle in without any warning. The man hisses in discomfort. Kyungsoo almost feels bad for him.

“Five thirty,” He clarifies. “And because he wanted to…talk?”

“Yeah I’m calling bull. If he wanted to talk, he’d have at least waited for a less…ungodly hour. What did he want, really?”

“Baekhyun, now’s not exactly a good time. Can’t we just talk about it later?” Kyungsoo looks pointedly at Baekhyun’s patient, who’s squirming in his seat. “In private.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Baekhyun waves a dismissive hand. “You’re worried about him? Nah. This is Kris. He knows Chinese or something. He can’t speak Korean.”

The man known as Kris opens his mouth, as if to say something, but then he shakes his head and closes it again, giving up entirely. Kyungsoo stares at him for a moment before sighing, letting his legs drop and his feet hit the ground. He uses them to make the chair spin as he contemplates how to word all of this.

“He took me flying,” He ends up saying first, even though it’s definitely not the thing standing out in his mind. Even though it was wonderful in its scariness.

“He what?” Baekhyun looks a tad surprised. “In his plane?”

“Yeah…”

“Wow. I wonder if he knows he’s not allowed to do that. Even commanders can’t…something about us being small and unprepared for the…G-force…or something. I don’t know. I never listen to anyone.”

Kyungsoo shrugs. “Maybe he knows. I don’t think he cares. He landed in sector four.”

“Really?” Baekhyun’s nodding his head slowly, like he’s impressed or something. Kyungsoo bites down on his lip, unsure how to continue. “Man. I’ve never seen him act this way. He usually just sticks to his group of friends. It’s almost like he’s into you or something.”

“It’s…kind of funny you say that…” He’s blushing to the roots of his hair and he knows it. Baekhyun deadpans, his hands dropping suddenly from the act of removing the long needle from Kris’ arm and he turns to stare at Kyungsoo in shock.

“No…” He shakes his head in disbelief. “I mean. Okay. I get it with Kai. He like…preys on the vulnerable. But Suho… into you? No. I’m sorry. Just no.”

“Is it really that unbelievable?” Kyungsoo feels like he should be offended, but Baekhyun’s words are kind of empty when he just returned from spending the last six hours dozing off on Suho’s chest.

“Well yeah. I mean. You’re cute. And last night you looked totally able, but I just…can’t imagine you of all people being Suho’s type.”

“You’re doing a great job at giving me a thousand insecurities going into a relationship, you know.” He says bitterly and Baekhyun’s still shaking his head at him. “He told me he likes me. And that it’ll kill him to lose me to Kai, or something. But…”

“Your eyes kinda fall out of their sockets whenever he so much as breathes in the same room as you, so I think it’s obvious which guy you’re gonna go for. Still don’t believe you, though.”

“Meh…” He kicks the ground and pulls his knees back up to his chest as the chair spins in one big circle. “What about you, though?” He asks, trying to change the conversation. He’s not sure he wants to hear anymore about how he’s not good enough to be Suho’s type.

“What about me?” Baekhyun turns back to Kris, who has his eyes trained suspiciously hard on the opposite wall.

“You and Chanyeol. At the club last night. Tongues down each other’s throats.”

“What?” Baekhyun looks so legitimately surprised that it throws Kyungsoo off a little. Did he not remember it, or something? He certainly drank enough for that to be believable…

“At the booth. In the club. Making out.”

“Oh.” Baekhyun giggles. “Oh. No. We weren’t making out, but now that I think of it, it could have kinda looked like that, right? Oh no. I just wanted to talk to him and the music was loud so I got super close.”

“The awkward straddling was kind of unnecessary, though,” Kyungsoo points out. He feels a little cheated out of his huge discovery, now.

“I was drunk, Kyungsoo.” Baekhyun waggles his eyebrows and then gives Kris a pat on the shoulder to tell him he’s free to leave. Kris stands up, and Kyungsoo can’t help but gawk, because, well, tall.

“So you’re not together, then?” He asks sadly. “I really thought you were.”

“Oh, we are.” Baekhyun shrugs nonchalantly as he walks over to the door to open it for Kris. “But it’s not exactly something we like to advertise, so don’t go shooting your mouth off about it to anyone? I don’t really care if people know but it’s nice to have privacy.”

“Okay, whatever,” Kyungsoo doesn’t think it really matters, because he’s sure that everyone from the club the night before had the exact same misinterpretations as he did.

Kris is still mingling by the doorway and when their conversation dies away, he clears his throat loudly. “Just…for the record,” he begins, in slightly accented but otherwise fluent Korean. “I’ve told you multiple times that I’m a commander and it’s required that I speak four languages, Korean being one of them. So uh…” He’s not really given a chance to finish; Baekhyun just releases an exasperated sigh and ushers him out the door with an impolite, yeah, yeah.

-

They usually meet at the crack of dawn before they both have to get to work for the day. Waking up before five is worth it, it’s like they live for the quiet, undisturbed time they have together. They don’t even talk that much between themselves, usually just sitting on the grass if it’s not covered in morning dew, or walking hand-in-hand around the base, occasionally bumping into each other accidentally-on-purpose as they listen to the sounds of the world waking up around them.

It’s one of those days where the clouds are looking suspiciously grey and Suho says he has to do some work on his plane, anyway, so he and Kyungsoo make their way over to the hanger. This time, they slip in through the door rather than the garage, as opening it is unnecessary if they don’t plan on flying.

Kyungsoo takes a seat on the little work bench in the corner while Suho crawls under the engine, an oily rag held in his hand. His arm disappears right inside the plane and he’s making soft gasping noises as he tries to reach for something obviously right outside his grasp, and Kyungsoo waits with bated breath, a little scared. Suho’s a pilot, not a mechanic. Is this really a good idea? He could get hurt, somehow. As his… boyfriend, or something, Kyungsoo really feels like he should be saying something.

But he doesn’t, and eventually, Suho withdraws his arm, now smudged slightly with the same substance covering the cloth. He wipes his hands on his shirt and then grumbles something under his breath. “Oi, Kyungsoo,” he calls, and Kyungsoo perks up, nodding at him. “Grab my tool box, will you? It’s right next to the bench.”

“’kay,” Kyungsoo complies, half-lifting-half-dragging the heavy toolbox over to where Suho is knelt. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” He asks worriedly.

“Of course, Kyungsoo,” Suho raises an amused eyebrow at him before rummaging through the toolbox and pulling out a pair of pliers. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t know how.”

Kyungsoo bends to get a better look at what Suho is doing, but it doesn’t really do much, the gap is too small for both of them to see through and the smell is enough to make him feel lightheaded. He straightens up again quickly.

“How’d you learn to fix planes, then?” He wonders. “They don’t teach you that here, do they?”

“Nope!” Suho replies to him, his voice strained as he’s reaching inside the plane again. “But this is what I grew up doing. I was taught to fix planes before I learned to fly them. I was supposed to take over my father’s factory in zone six.” Ah, zone six. Kyungsoo’s heard all about it, it’s where most of the manufacturing plants in Asia are located. It’s the only zone that has multiple chunks of land all over the continent. It’s also known for being one of the poorest, because the factory workers aren’t exactly paid fairly for their efforts.

 “Why didn’t you?” He doesn’t feel comfortable asking all these questions, but Suho doesn’t seem to mind. He emerges again, and this time there’s a bit of oil smeared across his cheek. It doesn’t do anything to put a damper on the bright smile he’s giving Kyungsoo at that moment.

“Because flying is my true calling, isn’t it?” He says. “I’ve always wanted to be a flight instructor. I haven’t given up hope on that, yet. Maybe when the war is over…”

“Do you have to go into active duty? Why can’t you just become an instructor now?”

“I’ve been trained as a combat pilot since I was 16 years old. They don’t want to waste my talent, they say.”

“It’s a bigger waste of talent if you’re dead,” Kyungsoo mumbles to himself, but of course Suho catches it. He pushes himself up to a stand and steps up to him.

“Hey, now.” He says gently, placing his wrists on Kyungsoo’s shoulders, only because his hands are covered in dirt and oil. “I’m not going to die, I’m too good to die.”

“I’m still scared, though,” Kyungsoo admits quietly. The war isn’t like any the world has been forced into before, they’re dealing with forces they never could have possibly prepared themselves for. Anything could happen.

“Don’t be.” Suho kisses him then, just a light peck on his lips that’s still enough to send a shiver right down his spine. He curls his toes in his shoes and tries not to clutch too tightly onto Suho’s waist because they’re still very new to this, and he’s not entirely sure how far is too far. “I’m not going to die now that I have something worth fighting for.”

-

I am eating the most delicious rice right now

thought you'd all like to know

another early one

because I love you all <3